A curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nicholas Cullinan, is taking a round-trip back to London to become director of the National Portrait Gallery.
Cullinan, a curator in the modern and contemporary art department, joined the Met less than two years ago. When he did, he was described this way by Tom Campbell:
He is a formidable scholar who has established himself with distinction in the field of modern and contemporary art over the past decade, particularly through his work on Cy Twombly, Arte Povera, and a range of contemporary artists internationally. He is an impressive curator, lecturer, and teacher who will be a wonderful addition and complement to the curatorial team headed by Sheena Wagstaff here at the Met.
Cullinan had been recruited from his post as curator of International Modern Art at Tate Modern. Announcing the appointment, the NPG said:
The appointment by the Gallery’s Board of Trustees, which has been approved by the Prime Minister, was made following the resignation of current Director Sandy Nairne in June 2014. Nicholas Cullinan will take up his new post in spring 2015.
Since joining The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in early 2013, Dr Cullinan has taken an important role in developing a number of projects including the programme for the museum’s occupancy of the Whitney Museum of Art’s Marcel Breuer building in 2016 (following the Whitney’s move to another location), expanding and redisplaying the permanent collection and increasing the Modern and Contemporary Department’s base of supporters. At the Met, he organised the exhibitions Venetian Glass by Carlo Scarpa: The Venini Company, 1932-47 (2013); Amie Siegel: Provenance (2014); and devised and led, together with co-curator Andrea Bayer, one of the Met’s opening exhibitions at the Breuer building for March 2016.